by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Do you know a high school junior who is getting ready to
take the ACT? Or someone who is
preparing for the ASVAB, the nursing school entrance exam, or even their
citizenship test? The Electronic Library
for Minnesota has a new free resource available online to help with all of
these tests.
The LearningExpress Library is a test prep database
available as part of the Electronic Library for Minnesota, or ELM, which you
can access at www.elm4you.org. ELM is a
vast resource for Minnesota residents, made available by the State Library
Services agency and Minitex, the resource-sharing network that brings you
materials borrowed from libraries throughout the state.
ELM includes many, many databases that you otherwise could
not access for free on the internet. Now
and then you have to enter your library card number to use it, but most of the
time the system can detect that you’re accessing it from within the state of
Minnesota and will not ask for that.
On ELM, you can search the Star Tribune, the Wall Street
Journal, Consumer Reports, and many other publications. You can search academic journals that you can
use to write a college paper. Miss those
encyclopedia sets? You can search Encyclopedia
Britannica, even choosing the age range of the person using it: from Britannica
Learning Zone for second grade and younger, all the way to Britannica Academic
for college.
Speaking of college, the college entrance exam resources in
the LearningExpress Library are great free resources for your high school
student. There are sample tests and
preparation modules for the ACT, SAT, and PSAT.
I made my high schooler go through some of the short lessons and
exercises each time before he took the ACT, and we really think it made a
difference. Taking a practice test can
be somewhat painful, but the modules on individual topics are short and
manageable. It’s far, far easier than
using a test prep book, and did I mention it’s free?
Some of our customers will be happy to learn that there are
test prep resources on the LearningExpress site for the Accuplacer test, the
GRE, and the GED. And like I mentioned
earlier, there are modules for the nursing school entrance exam, the ASVAB, and
many other tests.
If you need some guided practice using a computer, the
internet, or Microsoft programs, the site has tutorials on those things, as
well. You might need someone who is more
familiar with computers to get you started on the site, but then you can watch
videos and do some guided practice. They
even have training on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
We are very lucky to have a state library organization that
makes these high-quality databases available to all of us. I encourage you to try out ELM and explore the
resources available to you.
